Kiss of Death
by Daughter-of-Apollo213
Summary: : Lynn is an ordinary daughter of Apollo; blonde, pretty, and one badass archer. But behind those sparkling eyes, there's a sadness that no one can see. Only her boyfriend knows why; or he should. He makes it. Nico is the same scary kid that he always is. He still materializes out of nowhere and freaks everyone out. But he gets the freak-out of his life when he meets Lynn. Nico/OC
1. Chapter 1: I Get Hit By a Wall of Blue

Kiss of Death

Summary: Lynn is just an ordinary daughter of Apollo; blonde, pretty, and one badass archer. But...her boyfriend abuses her. Nico is just a not-so-ordinary son of Hades. Why? Well, a child of death normally doesn't fall in love with a child of the sun. But even if they fall in love, will she be able to trust him?

*Rated T for language, abuse, and slightly suggestive themes. Hey! Give me a break! I'm in middle school. They took away my innocence.

Disclaimer: It is with great sorrow that I must inform you that I cannot, *sniff* I cannot claim the mighty novels that are the Percy Jackson and the Olympians. *SOB*

Chapter One

Nico

Now, before I start this story, let me set something straight; just because my dad is Lord of the Underworld and he deals with death, does not mean that I can't get a girl. Just don't expect something fluffy, or soft, or sickeningly sweet. That's Annabeth and Percy's job. I would prefer to not make myself sick. Do we understand each other? Good.

And this isn't just a story about how I fell in love.

This is a story of how I nearly died.

My name is Nico di Angelo. I'm sixteen years old and my father is the (cue announcer's voice) immortal, all-powerful, amazing…Hades. Now I can guess what you're thinking; A son of Hades! That that emo kid away from me! I can promise that I won't shank you or anything.

Maybe.

Right now, I'm staying at Camp Half-Blood. I can't exactly leave because apparently, I can't even go get a frikin' Happy Meal without getting attacked by monsters that want to use me as their personal punching bag. (A/N: Last Olympian reference, anyone…anyone? Okay.)

I'm sitting in a cot in the camp's infirmary with an Ace bandage wrapped around my leg and a sleeping Lynn by my side. How did an all-powerful son of Hades (don't mean to brag) wind up in there, you ask? I guess it all started last summer…

I had just gotten back to camp from the Underworld (worst game of Uno I have ever played) and I was pumped. More than ever. It was my sixteenth birthday. I wasn't supposed to know about it (shhhh) but I'd overheard that Percy and some of my other friends were throwing me a surprise party. I know, I know. It sounds pretty lame but it really isn't every day that a demigod turns sixteen. And unfortunately for Mr. Percy, he had to fight a war on his sixteenth. But don't feel bad. He had a party later.

Anyway, I dragged my bags over the property line and to Thalia's tree. I inhaled the scent of the valley. As usual, I saw lava pouring down the side of the rock wall and Leo was scampering to the top. Over by the stables, Silena was grooming a copper-colored pegasus (The Doors of Death weren't just useful to the enemy) while laughing alongside Beckandorf. At the archery range, I spotted Chiron wrapping a camper's arm.

Home sweet home.

I picked up my bags and trudged back down Half-Blood Hill toward the direction of my cabin. That's when things started to get a little weird.

I walked past Hestia, who was tending the hearth, and nodded respectively to her. All of a sudden, there was a bright flash of blue that came from my right. I tried to sidestep out of the way, but with my luck, the crashed right into me and we tumbled to the ground. From the sound of their voice, it sounded like a girl. She landed with her hands pressed to my chest.

I was planning to just say sorry, but whoever this chic was, she really was crabby. "Watch where you're going," she snapped. What was her problem? She seemed to have forgotten that she crashed into me and that I was the one that she landed on.

She(still didn't know what her name was) got up quickly after noticing the very awkward position that we were in. As she brushed off her jeans, I glared at her. "Who do you think you are? Did you just happen to forget that you crashed into me? 'Cause I sure as Hades didn't. So you might want to watch where you're going next time."

Her green eyes glared back. "Look, I don't have time for this. I don't know about you, but," she pointed to herself, "this girl has somewhere to be. And that place is definitely not here." Then she dashed off.

I sighed and resumed walking to my cabin.

As I walked in, I felt all of the stress lifted off my shoulders. There was barely light in the cabin, it was freezing half the time, and nearly everything was colored black.

It's one of my favorite places in the world.

I dropped my bag on the floor next to my desk. Since shadow traveling really takes the life out of you, I wanted to take a nap. I couldn't have been anymore exhausted. It took all of my willpower to not just fall on my bed. It stank, because I didn't even get to take my nap. As usual.

Kaylee burst through the door, black-and-purple hair flying. She was this daughter of Hecate that had stumbled over the camp's borders about four years ago after the second Titan war, but we had been only dating for a year. She had streaks of bright purple scattered through her obsidian hair. Kaylee also had purple eyes. In other words, she was beautiful.

"I heard you were back, so I wanted to come and see you," she panted.

She was breathing heavily, as if she had been chased by monsters all the way from her cabin to mine. I jumped out of my bed. "What's up?" I asked, reaching out my arms to give her a hug. She relaxed as I drew her into my chest and gave a content sigh.

"Nico," she said. I nearly melted right then and there. The effect that she had on me was crazy. Or maybe that was just her natural aura of magic. "What?" I asked.

"I missed you so much. Winter break was boring without you." My breath hitched. She could undo me without saying as much as, "Hi."

"I missed you, too," I mumbled into her ear. I felt kind of bad, because I knew that I probably should have stayed for the winter, but I still wanted to find out more about my family.

Kaylee said something, but it was muffled because her face was buried in my shirt. "What?" I asked.

"I said 'Isn't there a rule about two campers of different genders being alone in a cabin?'"

Rolling my eyes, I answered, "Screw the rules." I could feel her smile against my shirt and I knew that we both probably could have stayed there forever, but the conch horn blew for dinner.

**So...how did I do? Tell me if I should continue. Please, please, PLEASE review! It would make a thirteen-year-old's day. And...you get virtual cookies! If you have any suggestions, comments, _constructive _critisism, let me know. Just...no flames. I really dont like it when people are rude and mean just because they dont like what another person wrote. If you dont like it, write your own story. **

**-Daughter-of-Apollo213**


	2. Chapter 2: I Make a Big Mistake

Kiss of Death

Summary: Lynn is just an ordinary daughter of Apollo; blonde, pretty, and one badass archer. But...her boyfriend abuses her. Nico is just a not-so-ordinary son of Hades. Why? Well, a child of death normally doesn't fall in love with a child of the sun. But even if they fall in love, will she be able to trust him?

*Rated T for language, abuse, and slightly suggestive themes. Hey! Give me a break! I'm in middle school. They took away my innocence.

Disclaimer: It is with great sorrow that I must inform you that I cannot, *sniff* I cannot claim the mighty novels that are the Percy Jackson and the Olympians. *SOB*

Chapter Two

Lynn

I really don't see why Scott got so mad. It wasn't as if I broke his spear on purpose. But, of course, that didn't stop him from hunting me down. And it didn't help that when I was running from my psychotic boyfriend, I ran into Nico. He was a wall of black. Literally. His chest and his abs were as hard as rock. And I had always heard from my half-sisters in Apollo how "hot" he was. That creeped me out a little bit. Okay, a LOT. I mean, why would a daughter of Apollo, the sun god(and god of medicine, archery, poetry...), want to date a son of Hades, the Lord of the Underworld and god of death? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

And just so you know, I'm not normally a rude person, but when you're running from a guy like Scott, you would find yourself being pretty rude, too.

I held my breath as I hid in the branches of a maple tree. I really didn't have to worry, seeing as I was a friend of the dryad that lived in the tree. I saw Scott's shadow from under the tree and I hoped that I looked like leaves. He was this son of Ares that had came a few months before that. When we first met, it was like BOOM, love at first sight. Now, I was starting to regret that. I mean, sure, the daughters of Aphrodite would tease and say that I was uglier than Medusa, but was I ugly enough to attract someone like Scott.

My eyes shut tight as he stepped back. "I can see you," he growled and my heart, my stomach, and all of my other vital organs felt like they were shutting down. This was the worst of my slip-ups. I honestly didn't know if Dad's healing powers could fix this one. Last time had been risky enough. Danni and Dylan had almost told Chiron. I had to beg.

He climbed up the branches and I didn't even try to struggle because I knew it was useless. I shuddered when Scott's voice breathed into my ear, "That was a big mistake." He grabbed my arm and made sure I hit every branch, every twig before landing on the ground. Then he slapped my face. I flew about four feet in the process. I could tell you more, but then it wouldn't be very pretty.

And as you can probably guess, I was running from Scott because he would beat me, and I knew it very well.

I moaned in pain as I sat up(or attemted to, anyway) after Scott had left. I was hard enough knowing that he abused me, but when he took advantage of me, it was like I had been buried under a ton of bricks. I also happened to be in the most inconvenient place at camp; the middle of the woods. I hate being in the woods alone. Why?

We store monsters in the woods.

I wanted to use the last ounce of dignity that I had left to get up and walk back to my cabin, knowing that I could probably fix myself up there, but whenever I attemted to get off the forest floor, red dots danced around in my vision. Pinching myself hard, I thought, No, you will not pass out! You don't want to give him the satisfaction.

So I sat there. Waiting.

I had even heard the horn blow for dinner, but I wasn't really thinking about food. I just wanted someone to find me and I didn't care if they saw the bruises and my bones. It was a matter of time before everyone found out anyway.

It was cold, it started sprinkling, and to top it all off, I really wanted to take a nap. Soon, it became dark and I gave into my weariness.

My eyes fluttered open. Where was I? Everything in my vision was fuzzy, like I needed glasses. I shifted my position, looking around the room. My vision finally came into focus. There was a line of cots on my side, and a familiar-looking guy–maybe we were on the same capture-the-flag team. Then it finally occured to me where I was.

The camp's infirmary. It was kind of ironic, considering the fact that I usually was helping wounded campers, not the other way around.

The guy–whoever he was–was still there. It was creepy. I couldn't pinpoint exactly where it was that I had seen him. He reminded me of someone, with his dark hair and dark clothes. What was his name?

He looked back at me. It was almost as if...he was actually worried about my wellbeing. I'm sure Scott didn't. That's when everything clicked together. He was Nico di Angelo, son of Hades. The very one who I crashed into and had been rude to. I just had one question.

If I had been so unkind to him, why had he rescued me?

* * *

**Please, please, PLEASE review! I hope you enjoyed and sry for the short chapters. I'll try to make them longer so that you have more to read. Virtual cookies for everyone! (::)**

**- Daughter-of-Apollo213**


	3. Chapter 3:Blame the ADHD, People

Blame the ADHD, People

Nico

Argh! I couldn't believe her. Even after...that.

It was just completely...frustrating. I bet you're wondering what happened.

*FLASHBACK*

I walked back from dinner, wanting to clean up a bit before campfire(not the room, _me. _You actually thought that I would _clean_?). So I ended up dumping half of my clothes on my floor because I couldn't find anything to wear. Tonight was an important night for me and Kaylee. It was our one year anniversary. I'm hoping that I don't sound like a child of Aphrodite right now.

Once I had finally picked out something to wear and was satisfied with my appearance, I walked out of my cabin and went to campfire. As a surprise for her, I wanted to sing It Will Rain by Bruno Mars. I actually have a decent voice, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I went early to help the Apollo kids set up for my performance. It didn't take very long for us to get done and for campers to start drifting in.

Will Solace explained that instead of them singing, someone else (me) would be doing a performance for a special someone (Kaylee).

That's when I saw them.

She was pressed against his chest, practically sucking his face off. I made a split-second decision. I prayed to the gods (mainly Apollo) that his kids knew how to play that song. So I winded up playing something a bit different.

I had to keep myself from laughing at Kaylee's facial expression once we started the first few bars of Grenade. I finished the song, feeling great.

That's when I headed to the woods.

*FLACKBACK OVER*

I tore through the branches, feeling weird. I couldn't exactly pinpoint the exact way to describe it. What was weirder was that I wasn't even mad at the fact that I just saw her cheating. More surprised, or that I should have expected it.

Lost in thought, I tripped over a tree root. Or, at least I thought it was a tree root.

But, trees don't normally have skinny jeans.

I brushed the leaves and dirt off her (I kind of assumed it was a girl. I mean come on, how many guys do know that wear skinny jeans? My point exactly) and took a closer look at her face. She looked really familiar. I couldn't exactly place her name or where I had seen her, but I knew that I had run into her somewhere.

Carrying her lifeless body, I trudged back to camp. I figured that there would be Apollo kids in the infirmary, helping with wounds and such, so I went there. I was also hoping to find out who this girl was. She was unnaturally beautiful. Not unnatural as in cake-faced with make-up, but she was really, really beautiful. There really wasn't any other way to describe her. Not sexy, or hot, or a smokin' babe, just...beautiful.

She stirred in her slumber. I wanted to get her there as quick as possible so she could get those cuts and bruises that she had cleaned off. The state that her body was in was enough to infuriate me.

Who would have the nerve to do something like that to anyone?

Once I got my hands on them...

I finally walked up the stairs into the infirmary. Sure enough, Will and some of his half-brothers and sisters were helping clean up or help the wounded. He looked up as I walked in. "Hey, Nico. How you been? You know since..." He trailed off. I knew exactly what he was talking about. I honestly told him that it didn't really bother me as much as I thought a break-up would.

Will smiled. "That's good." His eyebrows furrowed together. "Have you seen Lynn? I haven't seen her since archery." I started to shake my head, and then a horrible feeling struck me. The girl I was carrying stirred again. That's when I finally realized who I was holding. She was the girl that ran into me that same day.

Was this...

I looked up. "Is this Lynn?" His eyes widened as he skimmed over her bruises and broken bones. It seemed that he had lost the ability to speak, so he simply nodded.

My knees felt like jelly.

Will gulped. "Do you know what happened to her?" I shook my head, unable to process what had happened. "Well, she needs ambrosia and nectar." He looked back at a couple of twin girls. "Danni, Dylan. Can you bring some ambrosia and nectar over here?"

They rushed over, hands full of nectar and lemon squares (that's what ambrosia usually looks like; it can also be pudding) and you could see the worry etched on their faces. One girl looked at Lynn and her eyes widened. "Whoa," she breathed.

"I know, Danni," the other girl, who I assumed was Dylan said back.

I looked at them. "Do you guys have any idea what happened?" I pleaded. They gave each other quick glances.

"No," Danni said. I narrowed my eyes at her. It was easy to tell that she was lying. Will seemed to have noticed that, too. "You guys. If you even have the slightest idea as to what happened, you need to tell us. This is really important."

Dylan bit her nails. It looked like she was having a hard time deciding whether to say anything or not. Finally she sighed and looked at her twin. "I think we should tell them. They obviously need to know. She said it wouldn't get this bad, but here she is. I don't know about you, but I'm telling." Her sister looked like she wanted to protest, but she shut her mouth and nodded.

She took a deep breath. "A few weeks ago, Lynn came back to our cabin after a date with Scott from the Ares cabin. She had all these bruises on her face and her left arm. We," she gestured to herself and Danni, "were the only ones in the cabin because everyone else was still taking showers. She wouldn't tell what happened, so we figured she would tell us when she was ready." She nudged Danni.

"The next week, we were playing capture-the-flag. It was tough, considering that we were against the Ares kids. I remember looking for Lynn after the game had ended, because she was nowhere to be found." Her voice was trembling, but Will gave her a supportive pat on the shoulder. "We finally stumbled across them in a clearing. She wasn't even screaming. She just sat there, taking his verbal and physical abuse. Her clothes were torn and it was then that I finally knew that the bruises weren't from tripping over tree roots or bumping into tables like she said, but they were from Scott."

I had to swallow my temper. I really had never like that stuck-up, arrogant loser son of Ares. He always was picking a fight and he didn't always win. Now I just hated him even more.

Will's eyes narrowed. "Why didn't you tell someone? Why not come to me, Percy, or Chiron?"

Dylan's lip quivered. "We were going to, but she made us promise not to tell. She said that it didn't hurt her and that it wouldn't get that bad." She looked at Lynn's lifeless body. "Clearly she was wrong."

She sobbed into her half-brother's shirt. "I'm sorry. I didn't want her to hate me so we kept it to ourselves. We really believed her. I'm so sorry."

Will's face softened. "It's alright, but we have to tell Chiron. He'll take care of Scott. But right now, it's our responsibility to help Lynn through this." I felt kind of awkward, intruding on a family moment, but Danni looked at me. "Thank you so much for finding her. Who knows how long she could've been stranded out there?"

I nodded. "Is it alright if I stay? I mean, because I want to make sure she's alright." Will nodded.

"I'm going to get Chiron. When she wakes up, make sure she drinks some nectar." Then he walked out the door, with the twins hot in his trail.

My head turned just in time to see Lynn's green eyes open.

They swept across the room, taking everything in. She looked at me and her eyes widened. I think that she realized who I was. Lynn blinked a couple times and shook her head. It must have been hard for her. She was probably really hungry–she had missed dinner–and cold.

When she finally spoke, it reminded me of the sand-papery voice of the old oracle. "How did I get here?" she rasped. I didn't exactly know what to tell her. How am I supposed to explain in the easiest way that I found her after her crazy boyfriend beat her and now we all knew her story? No big deal, right?

I was about to explain how she wound up there, but then I remembered that she needed some of the food of the gods. After quickly gesturing for her to wait, I reached across the table and grabbed some ambrosia and nectar. She took it gingerly and nibbled off a corner. I watched her eat in silence. It was a little weird, because I felt a little stalker-ish, but she didn't seem to mind. She had this sort of methodical way of eating. She would eat half of an ambrosia square, then take a couple sips of nectar. Then she repeated the whole process.

Lynn soon stopped eating and looked at me expectantly, but I was saved by three Apollo campers and a centaur. Lynn's eyes widened. I felt bad, knowing that she really didn't want anyone to know, but it was seriously getting out of hand. No one should be treated like that. Not even–well, I could think of a few people. But that's not the point. If he loved her, he shouldn't have treated her like that. The only upside was waiting to see what Apollo would do to Scott. Lynn flinched when our mentor clopped over and put his hand on her forehead.

"Lynn." his voice was soft, but firm. She didn't look into his eyes. I also knew that feeling. Chiron always had this look; it would make you sing like a robin in the morning. "Why didn't you tell anyone? We could have very well helped you. I understand that you may have loved the boy, but he made his feelings very clear tonight. I also want you to know that you don't have to worry about him hurting you anymore."

Lynn's eyes widened. Chiron must have seen the horrified look on her face because he laughed. "No, the boy is still alive; I just made it very clear that he is not to touch you ever again without having to face the consequences from not only myself and Dionysus, but from your father as well." By the end of his sentence, his face had a stern, hard look on it, reminding me of my father.

Will looked over at me. "I know that this is sort of out of the blue, with you guys practically just meeting and all, but would you do me a favor and look out for her?" Everyone looked at me. Even Lynn. I was almost tempted to look behind me and go, "Who, _me_?" but I didn't. And even though I didn't know how I was supposed to "look out" for her, I said yes. It was also a big risk because I didn't know if she hated me or not.

But one thing that I did know was that this Scott was going to regret it.

* * *

**OMG! I am soooooo sorry! I have been extremely busy this summer with camping (really, what kind of camp doesnt have wi-fi?) and I just recently started cross-country, which has occupied most of my time. Back in May, during school, we were so busy getting ready for all of our final exams that I just couldnt keep up with everything. Keep in mind that those are all explainations, not excuses.**

**So once again, I am very sorry. Whoever forgives me gets a cookie! (::)**


	4. Chapter 4: I Tell a Story

Kiss of Death Chapter 4

Lynn

A normal person would have said _something _to fill the awkward silence. A normal person would have gratefully accepted a nice, warm blanket without complaint. A normal person would have slurped up every last drop of a hot bowl of chicken noodle/nectar soup. A normal person would have thanked the person that may have saved their life. A normal person wouldn't have gotten themselves into this situation in the first place.

I was sitting with my back against the worn wooden frame of my bed in the infirmary. The sun was setting over Long Island Sound and vibrant colors were painted across the sky. It was a beautiful sight, especially since the different hues of blue, pink, and purple were mirrored on the waves rolling in and out on the beach.

I hated the beauty and peacefulness of it all.

The world should have been suffering, just like I was. I was in pain; even the slightest shift sent another wave of soreness rippling throughout my body.

I had to endure it, though. I needed to get out of there as soon as possible; their pity-filled eyes were making me upset and angry. Who did they think they were? I didn't need that pity; I was just as strong as anybody else at Camp Half-Blood (except maybe Scott, Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, and Nico).

I also really needed to leave because I _really _didn't want anyone to find out about it, especially not from Scott. He'd probably say that I was faking and it was just training accident.

What a douche.

The sooner that I got out there would be less chance of anyone realizing that I was gone. Then I would have to answer snoopy questions and lie to people. I didn't want to lose the friends that I had. They were a small few; Dani, Dylan, Will, Katie, Travis, Connor, and Jane, my younger half-sister.

My eyes traced the entire area that I was in; worn, yet homey rugs by the door, the bizarre mementos from Mr. D, and the five faces looking straight back at me.

Dani and Dylan out of all of them looked the most nervous. My brain was running at a million miles per hour trying to figure out why they were so worried. I mean, it was obvious; lines on their high foreheads bite marks on their thin lips, hands twisting platinum blonde hair—yeah. They were freaking out about something. But my only thought when I looked at them was _I hope they didn't tell; I hope they didn't tell. _

My eyes shifted to my older half-brother. With him being the first of the campers to welcome me into Camp Half-Blood, he was my best friend. He still is, really. Some new campers have come up to us and asked if we were dating because we would spend so much time with each other—gross, right? I can't date my own brother. Ew. But Will is almost the exact image of our father; tall, blonde, blue-eyed, athletic, and can pretty much master any instrument in under an hour.

The downside to having such a great brother is that he can convince me to do almost anything that he wants. For example, if I, for some reason, got angry with Will (which rarely happens) and I decided that I wasn't going to talk to him, he could make me talk to him just by talking and making me look at him. It's like charmspeak, just with less of a romantic feel and more of a musical feel, because, as my band teacher always says, "Music is made to make you feel an emotion."

If there was one person that I truly would feel ashamed around because of my situation, it would be Chiron, my trainer and teacher. Even though he lies very well and has an amazing poker face, his dark eyes have so much depth and hold stories unknown to both mankind and demigod-kind. His scraggly beard is always comforting to see, especially if you're in a position like mine. Chiron is like a second parent to all of the half-bloods at camp and none of us could ask for more than what he already gives us.

Now on the other hand, if there was one person that I was truly afraid of, it would be Nico di Angelo. His father was Hades, for gods' sakes! How am I _not _going to be scared? Other than the rest of the Big Three campers and Annabeth, there was not another camper that could match his own skill level. Even without his power this guy would be scary. When you looked into his eyes, it was as if they were searching your soul, or something. I'd heard that whenever he was angry his eyes would flash red. But then again, I'd _also _heard that he'd slept with the entire Aphrodite cabin, which was highly unlikely.

Even though his broad shoulders were slightly slumped, he always looked ready for an attack. And being a demigod myself, I know that those can come at _any _time. Another thing that kind of set me off whenever I saw him was his hair. It sometimes seemed to long, it sometimes seemed to short. It was weird.

A quiet cough shattered my thoughts.

My eyes snapped in that direction; the cough seemed to have come from Will. I had to stop myself from actually listening to what he had to say, or else I knew that everything would come out like a waterfall. So instead, I focused y eyes on the view through the door. Campers rushing to and fro, trying to find their brothers and sisters, boyfriends and girlfriends before campfire started. It was crazy that this was our life; singing to keep a fire going, burning food for our parents before we ate, literally fighting to stay alive.

I looked back at my brother, without fear. This time, I actually _wanted _to tell the truth.

I opened my mouth, cleared my throat, and began my story.

* * *

"The last time that Scott hit me was earlier today. We were in his cabin hanging out when he suddenly said that he wanted to spar with me. I said sure and we headed out. As we were walking along, I somehow managed to trip over a tree root." Out of the corner of my right eye, I saw Nico roll his eyes. (Nico was sitting on the bed to the right of me, Chiron was diagonal from me, Will was standing behind a chair right next to Chiron, and the twins were sitting on the floor next to the bed that Nico was on.) Did he think that this was funny? Did he think that I was asking for a quote unquote "beat-down"? Because if he did, he needed to leave.

But Will, being the best brother ever, saw this and glared at him. I went on. "He leaned forward to catch me, while in the process dropping his spear that he got from his father. He loves that spear so much that he had Leo build him a glass case for it next to his bed. **(A/N: This is _after _the Giant War, by the way.)** Anyway, as I said, he accidentally dropped his spear when he went to catch me. Somehow, I managed to land on his spear and I broke it into three different pieces. Once he got that look in his eyes—he always gets this certain look when he's really angry, especially with me—I decided that that was an acceptable time to run.

"As I was running, I was going so fast and so…without direction that I ran into this little ray of sunshine over here. That means that I ran into Mr. Nico di Angelo. I didn't really register who it was, though, until when I woke up and saw Nico sitting next to my bed. But at that point, when we had crashed into each other, I wasn't really thinking. I was so scared; I thought that I was going to crap my pants."

Nico snickered. I looked at him, sure that there must have been murder in my eyes. "Okay, I've had enough of you, your carelessness, and your cocky attitude—it's pissing me off. I'm trying to actually talk about my problems and I'm working to fix them, unlike you. If you don't want to listen, fine. But you better get your holier-than-thou ass out." I was angry—no, scratch that. I was _furious. _But more with myself, really. I thought, that for once, the son of Hades would be, I don't know, _caring _for once.

I can't believe I fell for it.

Nico's laughter came to a screeching halt and he narrowed his eyes at me. "So you think that you can just talk to me like you know me, is that it? You think that you can assume things about me, just like everybody else in this fucked up world. **(A/N: I apologize for the swearing. I don't really like doing it, but that's what I think both Lynn and Nico's characters would probably say. Please don't judge me! ****L) **Well, newsflash, _Lynn,_" he sneered, "you don't know anything about me, my family, my friends, or my life. And have you ever taken a moment to consider that maybe I don't really want to hear your _devastating, heartbreaking _story. I have better things to do with my time than listen as a girl with no life, no friends, and no boyfriend tells another useless sob story." He looked pretty satisfied with himself as he started to leave, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw the looks that everyone was giving him.

Will started to get up in his face, but I said to stop and that this was my fight, not his. With difficulty, I managed to get myself off the bed, hobble over to Nico, and slap him right across the face. I can still remember the look of hatred on his face as I backed away. Thankfully, I did not get hurt, but it could have happened

Yeah, it could have happened.


	5. Chapter 5: Fatal Flaws

Kiss of Death Chapter 5: Fatal Flaws  
**  
A/N:**

**Merry Christmas! Thanks so much, guys for sticking by me and reading my story and not only watching as I (sort of) grow as a writer, but as the story of Lynn and Nico grows.**

**First of all, I would like to thank all of the people that have either favorited or followed me or my story. That means so much, really. Thank you.**

**Now...to respond to your reviews! Here's my system; I'll first put what the reviewer said, then I'll respond to it. I do that 'cause I know I hate it when I never know what the reviewer said on another person's story and then they respond to the review on their post. It annoys me. So, here you go!**

**Guest - Write more! I want to see what happened to Scott when Apollo does, I mean we never really saw him go all bad ** father or anything. I also want to see if Scott will come to the infermery and act as if nothing happened, and if this does happen I want to see him try to hug or kiss her or something and have Nico go all bad **, protective, caring Nico! It would be awesome! Keep writing! - I seriously doubt that you'll be expecting some of what's coming up in these next few chapters. ;) I'm even surprised at what I've come up with. Don't mean to brag. Thanks for the support!**

**Moonfan4eva - Please update!This is awesome! And epic! Epic and awesome - Wow...that's just...wow. Thanks for acknowledging my epic awesomeness. May the force of the demigods be with you.**

**ladybug28 - You're a really good writer... A good enough writer to keep me up until midnight - Awww, thanks! That's kinda like me! And please believe that I have read my fair share of books (and Fanfics) that have kept me up until midnight and beyond. You should check out the Sisters Grimm by Michael Buckley and a Fanfiction by Singer24 called Love is Forever. Ironically, it's one about Nico. It's really good. Ooo! You should also read the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson and–you know what? I'll just get you a list of recommended Fanfics and books–if you don't mind, of course. I barely know what to read anymore. Do you know how hard it is to walk into a library and leave empty-handed because you've read all the good books there? It's so frustrating! Anyway, thanks for the review and happy reading!**

**PrincessSerenityforever21 - This is great. Really 3 this story so update soon! - Thank you! I appreciate that and I will try my absolute hardest to update ASAP. It's going to be easier now, though, 'cause b-ball and cross country are both over. :'( On the bright side, we were underrated in cross! We beat ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN teams over the course of one measly season. Go Lady Pioneers of Clare, Michigan! Okay, that's enough for my sports rant. Thanks again for the encouraging words!**

**Artemis-girl123 - UPDATEUPDATEUPDATEUPDATE (by the way love your name) - Why, thank you. My friends have said multiple times that if I was a demigod, I would either be the child of Apollo, Aphrodite, or Ares. I sing, dance, and I play 3 instruments- flute, clarinet, and saxophone. I dabble in the art of being a pianist. The Aphrodite part would be that I'm a total sucker for romance stories, especially ones with a lot of angst and drama. And also...I happen to have this HUGE crush on this guy, so...yeah. They said Ares because; well sometimes...I get violent. Like in-your-face violent. Once, I was walking through a high school parking lot with about fifteen high schoolers having a snowball fight. And I told them that if I got hit, someone was gonna get hurt. I also punch my friend in the stomach on a daily basis. Then she kicks me. It's part of our routine.**

**Soozin-Hevincarrr - You write well. This story COULD be interesting, but I don't quite think you did the introduction justice. It doesn't capture my attention, it doesn't pull me in and torture me until I beg for more. You ended it too abruptly. I'm sitting here wondering what the heck was going on with that surprise party? Is it now just an irrelevant detail that we won't get to? The introduction to the daughter of Hectate was very dull. Black and purple? How is it two colours at once? Just streaks? Or are its tips purple, or is it some magical Hectate hair quality? And that's all we hear about her. Is she a mass of talking hair? - This second chapter had less errors, but Lynn is quickly showing Sue-like traits. Got rescued by Nico even when she was mean to him. Nico is a bitter son of Hades. He wished for Percy to die when Bianca died, even when it was impossible for Percy to help. As if he would help her, unless pressured by other campers. Just sayin'!**

**You do write well, but you've barely introduced us to Scott, I would like to know how he got so angry. A broken spear, yes, but how did the spear break, when, where, why?**

**Just some points to consider. Take them as you will. - Umm...is there a script somewhere, one that I can use? 'Cause I honestly don't know how to respond. I mean, I REALLY appreciate the suggestions; they help a lot. The criticism was extremely constructive and not at all flame-like. But you kind of have to remember that I'm an eighth grader, taking an English class that's meant for eighth graders. Now I'm not saying that that's a very good excuse, but it's not going to turn out like an amazing novel. I enjoy writing because it gives me a chance to express my thoughts onto paper or in this case, a screen. I don't write to get awards. If that's the kind of writing that you're looking for, I'm sorry to have disappointed you. But, on the bright side, I now know what to fix. And for that, I thank you, Soozin-Hevincarrr.**

**Whew! That was intense. Those reviews made me all fuzzy inside. Now, on to what you've been waiting almost a whole month (again; extremely sorry) for...**

**Chapter 5!**

**And oh yeah, I don't own the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Heroes of Olympus.**

**CAUTION: IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT THIS CHAPTER WILL HAVE A HIGH CONTENT OF SPOILERS FOR THE BOOK THE MARK OF ATHENA. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.**

* * *

Nico

My face throbbed painfully, my heart raced at the speed of a Kentucky racehorse, and my head spun faster than a Tilt-a-Whirl.

Was that girl insane? Did she somehow not know who I was? Did she not know how easily could have hurt her and how I most likely wouldn't have felt any remorse? For her sake, I hoped that she didn't know what my fatal flaw was. **(A/N: Gods, Nico is soundin' like a serious diva.)**

How dare she go around, assuming things about me that are seriously not true? My family and my life is nobody's business except mine. She had no right to think that, no right to just think or say those things about me, especially since I pretty much saved her life**! (A/N: Now he's SUCH a drama queen. GODS!)**

But I couldn't help wondering how many people thought the exact same thing about me.

I pushed the thought out of my head and trudged on. It wasn't as if I cared, or needed to care; I was my own person and I should have only worried about what I thought about myself. I had learned that the hard way.

Sure, Percy, Annabeth, Rachel, Grover, Jason, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Piper and Thalia were all great. They were my only real family that cared. But when it came down to it, I was really the only person that I could trust and the only person that really mattered.

That is, except for Bianca. She would always matter.

* * *

My left hand fumbled at the wall in my cabin, (My right hand was holding my face.) looking for the light-switch, even though flipping it on wouldn't make it that much brighter.

"SURPRI–Oh my gods, what happened to your face?!"

I made an excellent observation right then; It's almost impossible to explain yourself if about twenty-five bodies suddenly descend on you. It may or may not result in an uncharacteristically girly sound erupting from your mouth. Not that I would know.

Once again, my head was spinning, my heart was racing, and my face was throbbing.

See, this is why I don't hang out with a lot of demigods. They are nuts. Completely nuts.

Everything seemed to be happening in a blur. Their faces kept moving in and out of my vision, almost as if they were having some sort of contest to see how long it would take for me to hurl. And believe me, it probably wasn't going to take long.

People kept grabbing at my arms, trying to get me to talk to them and to tell them was in my father's name was going on. I guess that Lynn girl had a pretty hard slap. Seriously, my face hurt.

I was about to go loco-crazy on all their demigod asses, but they got lucky; my little sister decided to interfere.

By interfere I mean standing on a table, cupping her tiny hands around her mouth and screaming, "Shut the fuck up! Give the man some space! You don't need to be all up in his shit. Gods. Let him enjoy his party."

Okay, so maybe Hazel DIDN'T say that, but that's something along the lines of what I probably would have said. I was in a not-so-good mood.

I was thankful for the decrease in noise. The world had finally stopped spinning and I was able to sort out who was actually in my cabin.

The ever so AMAZING (I hope you noticed the sarcasm.) people that were infecting my cabin were : Percy, Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, Rachel, Travis, Connor, Katie, Juniper, Leo (who was ALREADY downing some tequila from a SOLO cup), Jason, Piper, Clarisse, Chris, Hazel, Frank, Reyna, Hylla, Lou Ellen (she's a riot), Silena, Beckandorf, Jake, Drew (She FINALLY stopped being a bitch long enough to actually make real friends. *gasp* Shocking, isn't it?), Natalie, Piper's hot new half-sister, and Alec, Clarisse's new half-brother. I wasn't too sure about Alec being there, in my cabin. Sons of Ares never really...I don't know...got along with me very well, I guess.

I never really knew why.

Anyway, pretty soon, I was dancing my heart out, (while being pretty tipsy) forgetting everything that had happened.

There was the breakup with–what was her name?-Kaylee, the stress of finding that girl, Lynn, her freaking out on me, reminding me of my family–the one thing that stops me from lashing out at people and sinking into depression. (And trust me, it's not fun.) It had been an insane day.

I shook my head. No need to focus on all that dark shit. It was my birthday. I was gonna get completely smashed, now all I needed was a hot girl to...um...interact with. And no, that didn't mean I was gonna get laid (although she wouldn't know that) because I didn't want to give something that's so important to some girl that I knew in my heart didn't mean anything to me.

Smirking, I focused on the girl in front of me. She was Natalie, Piper's sister and man, was she FINE. Her sleek brunette hair was pulled back from her tan, baby doll face into a tight ponytail that could NOT have been comfortable. But it really didn't look that bad. Even though it was up high on her head, the dark curls stretched all the way to her slim, curvy hips.

She was literally all legs. Her head nearly reached my shoulders, and that's saying something. The majority of her height came from her legs, which were covered by long, gold tights and some...objects on her feet that just looked like death contraptions to me.

I hope Piper didn't mind me raking my eyes over her little sister like that.

Oh, well.

I mean, Piper might be two years older than me and a legal adult, but there was no way that she was stronger than me. She was like, half my size.

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating. But you get my point.

* * *

I could feel the steady thump, thump, thump of the bass through the floor of my cabin. My mind was surrounded with this fog, barely registering when Natalie took both of her tiny hands and grabbed one of mine, causing us to stumble out into the night.

I knew that it was well past curfew, but I didn't seem to care very much about the idea of being eaten alive.

She pulled us behind my cabin, both of us giggling like idiots. That stopped me for a moment. Nico di Angelo the Great did NOT giggle. But then again, that night was about throwing caution to the wind. Not caring about what I did. Not caring about what other people did.

My eyebrows rose lazily at Natalie. Her perfectly groomed ones rose expectantly right back me, except her face also had a smirk plastered on it.

Right as I was about to say something, but she rolled her eyes and grabbed the collar of my shirt to bring me down to her level. Right as my lips brushed her full ones; I pulled back, making a tsk-tsk sound at her disappointed whimper.

Bringing my lips down to the shell of her small ear, I whispered, "Don't think that just because I'm tipsy that I can't take control of this...interesting situation," I took a deep breath, "because I can. And I will."

As I crashed our lips together, I could easily tell that she was feeling something, even though I wasn't. At least, not enough to make me care. I felt the initial rush of breathlessness that came from maki–I mean, kissing with...um...passion.

Even through my drunken haze, I could still tell that she was getting pretty into it, which made me feel bad. I also knew that Piper was going to hate me for doing this to her little sister, especially since she had just started coming to camp.

But hey, it wasn't about caring what other people thought of me, right?

So there we were, in the middle of the night, kissing.

It became very easy to tell when the party was starting to wind down because the familiar thump, thump, thump of the bass-line was gone and Reyna was pretty much carrying her wasted boyfriend back to Cabin 9. How she put up with Leo, I'll never know.

I could pretty much tell that Natalie wanted to keep going, if the way that she was rubbing my abs was any indication. Even though she was a good kisser–and I mean GOOD–I had absolutely no desire to go on. But, I needed something to help me forget, and the tequila was already starting to wear off. So I stayed there, with my lips attached to hers in the middle of a warm July night.

"Hey, Will!" I heard a voice slur. It sounded a bit like Drew's voice.

"Hey, Drew," he said back. By now, my lips were off of Natalie's and I was trying to listen to their conversation. I wondered why Will was at my cabin. If he wanted me to apologize, he could forget it. I meant everything that I said and said everything that I meant.

Maybe he came to see Drew. I mean, everyone knew that they liked each other. Ever since she started actually caring about how people felt, they instantly clicked.

Except they didn't see the click.

It was the standard boy-meets-girl love story, just with a couple wars, a few monsters, and the whole demigod thing; she likes him, he likes her, but neither of them knows that she likes him and that he likes her. So they prance around each other, waiting and hoping that they'll grow a pair and confess how they feel. And I'll confess that I've seen too many Hallmark and Lifetime movies over the course of my short life.

Anyway.

They were talking, and I didn't really bother to really pay attention until they came across a particular subject.

Drew: So why didn't you come to Nico's party tonight?

I didn't even know that he was invited. Oh.

Will: I had to take care of my sister. She was in the infirmary

Drew: Which one? What happened?

Will: Lynn and she had a bad run-in with a monster in the woods.

Drew: Oh my gods, is she okay?

Will: *cough* Yeah, he's–I mean she's good.

He sounded nervous. Hmm. I guess that's what happens when you like someone and can't figure out how to talk to their crush. Not that I would know.

Drew: Welll...I hope she gets better.

Will: Actually, I brought her with me. She's fine now. Nothing like a bit of ambrosia to fix someone up.

My eyes widened and I pulled away from Natalie, ignoring her hurt look.

Didn't Will know that I probably wouldn't want to talk to Lynn, even though I was supposedly her "protector"? If anything, having me hanging around like a shadow would most likely just make her look like a wimp.

I looked back at Natalie. She looked upset. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she said, turning her head to the side.

I wanted to make her feel a little bit better, so I brought my hand up to the side of her face and turned her face back to mine. Her emerald green eyes shone with unshed tears, which surprised me. I didn't actually think that...

"Hey. Don't be sad," I said and pulled her into my chest, my voice softer than I had ever heard it. She sniffled and I allowed her to cry into my shirt. Her tears soaked my shirt and when as she pulled away, her hands quickly wiped the makeup that was running down her cheeks.

I had no idea what to do. I had no idea how to handle a crying girl. This wasn't the plan. This wasn't on my birthday agenda. I didn't think that she would actually like me.

She took a deep breath before looking at me. "I'm sorry. It's just–I just had a bad break up with someone a few days ago. I thought–I thought that I could handle going out and meeting a nice guy. I'm really, really sorry."

To be completely honest, I was pretty relieved. I didn't actually like her; I just wanted to forget. I tend to do weird things when I want to forget.

Shrugging my shoulders, I said, "It's okay. I understand. It would be wrong of me to rush you like that, anyway." I gave her what I hoped was a convincing smile. "We should head back."

She smiled back at me and said, "Okay."

We walked back to my cabin, hand in hand, even though we both knew that it was for comfort. And I didn't know about her, but as for me; I was dreading the moment that I would finally have to let go.

* * *

As we neared my cabin, I could see the bodies of Drew and Will illuminated by the light from my cabin.

And Lynn. She was there, too. I guess that Will wasn't kidding when he said that he had brought her with him.

I reluctantly squeezed Natalie's hand one more time before she left for her cabin with Piper. Piper glared at me.

Now, I do believe that I might have mentioned something earlier–something about Piper hating me...

Oh, yes, I did, didn't I? Hm...

I tried to sneak past Drew into my living room, but, unfortunately, they saw me and I stopped dead in my tracks.

My head turned slowly, finally facing them. "Hey, guys," I said, waving my hand and smiling awkwardly, "what's, uh, what's goin' on?"

Will rolled his eyes. "Cut the crap, di Angelo. You still have to watch my sister."

I scowled. I was kind of hoping that because the whole fiasco in the infirmary I wouldn't have to quote/un-quote "watch after her". Having her around would probably knock down my rate on the intimidation scale. It's a real thing.

Don't mean to brag, but my rate is a 97. I didn't get a full 100 because apparently, Percy, Annabeth, and Thalia don't think that I'm too scary.

Hm. I'll have to work on that.

Anyway. I groaned. "Do I have to?" I knew that I sounded like a five-year-old kid–or like Mr. D–but I really didn't care. She could find another person to protect her, or whatever my so-called job was.

Lynn looked at me in undisguised disgust. "Look, Will," she said turning to her brother, "The Great and Powerful Nico di Angelo obviously doesn't have time to take care of a 'girl with no life, no friends, and no boyfriend tells another useless, devastating, and heartbreaking sob story.'"

I couldn't believe she just did that. She quoted what I had said to her. Did it really hurt that bad...?

I shook my head. So what if it hurt her? She hurt me in more ways than she could ever imagine. Not that she would ever know that.

She looked at her brother pleadingly. "Why can't someone else take care of me–or whatever you said? Or better yet, why can't I just take care of myself? I'm better now; I know not to go near him and not to trust him. And I seriously doubt that Nico, of all people, would know how to treat me." her eyes rolled. I narrowed my eyes.

Will sighed. It seemed as if they had been over this many times. Or however many times she could bring it up from the time that I left the infirmary to the time that they arrived at my humble abode. "I already told you–Nico is the last person that Scott would expect to see you with. And as much as I hate to admit it, Scott is stronger than me. I wouldn't want you to get hurt simply because I couldn't protect you. It would kill me."

She was about to say something else in reply, but I quickly cut her off. "I'll tell you what; if she," I pointed at Lynn, "can stop PMS-ing on me, I'll make like a satyr and protect."

Both of the blondes looked at me. Will had this surprised but happy look on her face and Lynn just looked...completely perplexed. Her mouth opened and closed like a fish.

There was only one reason that I agreed to be around her, and one reason only; she obviously didn't think that I was humanly capable of caring about someone else–which is sooo not true. I cared for my sister. I still do.

Will was about to thank me, but I waved him off and instead, I looked his sister dead (hehe) in the eye. "But there are some important things to remember." She quickly nodded. "One. Don't talk about my family. Ever. You will regret it. And two. Just don't get on my bad side. Or you will feel the effects of my fatal flaw for years to come. Got it?"

Her leafy green eyes widened and she nodded slowly. I smiled a slow, creeping smile. "Good."

* * *

**A/N: Wow. That was intense. Took a couple of days and nights, but hey, anything for my loyal readers. And it's about 4,100 words! :) Please, please, PLEASE review. I get really disappointed when I don't get reviews 'cause then I don't really know what to write about.**

**Soo...was that good? Was it long enough? Were any of the characters OOC? If so, tell me in the form of a review! If you have any tips, please tell me! I need all the help I can get. ;) Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! God bless you all!**

**- Onalenna (middle name–means God is with me in my native language, cool, huh?)**


	6. Chapter 6: Painful

Kiss of Death Chapter 6: Painful Memories

**A/N:**

**Wow. I'm already at Chapter 6! It feels like just yesterday I was on Chapter 5—Funny how that works. **

**Anyway; here's the last section from Chapter Five.**

_**There was only one reason that I agreed to be around her, and one reason only; she obviously didn't think that I was humanly capable of caring about someone else–which is sooo not true. I cared for my sister. I still do.**_

_**Will was about to thank me, but I waved him off and instead, I looked his sister dead (hehe) in the eye. "But there are some important things to remember." She quickly nodded. "One. Don't talk about my family. Ever. You will regret it. And two. Just don't get on my bad side. Or you will feel the effects of my fatal flaw for years to come. Got it?"**_

_**Her baby blue eyes widened and she nodded slowly. I smiled a slow, creeping smile. "Good."**_

**I really don't have that much to say—and that does **_**not**_** happen very often.**

***gasp* I actually **_**do **_**have something to say! So get this: I was talking about the **_**Sea of Monsters**_** movie (it's coming out in March—eep!) and asked her what she would say if I told her that I was going to be an extra in it. Long story short; she thinks that I'm going to be an extra in the next Percy Jackson movie. **

***sigh* If only…then I could see Logan Lerman up close—yummy.**

**At any rate, it would be too late to be an extra, since it takes them quite a while to get the movie edited after all the filming.**

**Oh, well.**

**So…you guys know how I sing, right? Well…I'm going to try out some of my own song lyrics out on you, my faithful, wonderful, and kind readers.**

**One of my personal favorites is **_**Black and White. **_**It's about a girl who liked a guy, but he didn't know it, so he unknowingly hurt her by finding a girlfriend. And before you ask, **_**no**_**, it's not about me. It's just something that I kind of threw together when I was in the shower. I tend to do that a lot. Anyway…here goes.**

_**Your words cut through me like a knife. **_

_**I say I understand; that it's alright, but one look in your eyes and I break down.**_

_**And normally, you'd come to me, hold me, comfort me.**_

_**But there's no sympathy as you turn around.**_

**What do you think? Tell me how you feel about it in a review (**_**along **_**with a review of the actual story) or you can just PM me. Now, on to the **_**real **_**story; I have to stop now so I don't get carried away. ;)**

**Disclaimer: By mentally signing this virtual contract, I agree that I have no claim on the **_**Percy Jackson and the Olympians **_**franchise, which is owned by Mr. Rick Riordan.**

* * *

Lynn

I should've _known_ that Will would do something like that—something so infuriating, but at the same time, something totally necessary. It was like when your parents do something that you don't like, but it's for your own good. Things will turn out better if you go along with them and listen to their way of handling things instead of winging it, which is what I was planning on doing. I would've, too, if my brother didn't exist and I only had my younger brother for company.

But I _obviously_ wasn't going to admit something like that.

It would make his sun-sized ego even bigger than it already was. (See what I did there? Ha!) Okay, so maybe Will didn't really have that big of an ego. If anything, his ego was about the size of Pluto—relatively small.

I _really_ didn't want to leave the welcomed warmth of my bed in the infirmary. (It was actually pretty nice; getting taken cared of instead of having to take care of someone that you're very distantly related to.) I never knew that we were going to Nico's cabin for his birthday party. If I did, I sure as Hades would not have gone willingly. But by the time that I found out the truth, it was already too late. We were about ten feet from the open door.

Nervousness, anxiety, and even guilt gathered in the bottom of my stomach, making me feel worse. I wasn't sure what he would say to me if he saw me at his cabin. Would he ignore me completely or would he smother me under his sneer every chance that he got? I didn't know.

I was so completely nervous about it that I didn't even notice when he attempted to get by us (Will, Drew, and I) so he could get into his cabin. I mean, if he had been only trying to get past me, he would have been fine. Even though I probably should have been content with the fact that Will stopped him before he could escape into his cabin, the only thing that I felt was dread. What if he hated me and refused to even look at me? What if I had made him _that _angry? He had seemed pretty upset when he left the infirmary. Okay, so maybe _upset _and _left _aren't strong enough to express what it was like, so let me rephrase that statement. He had seemed _really _pissed when he stormed out of the infirmary. Better?

When his scrutinizing gaze found mine, I shuddered. He made me feel so small, so helpless and unimportant. Who knew what kind of things that he was capable of? No, don't answer that. Even Clovis of Sleepy Hollow knew not to mess with Nico. And he was asleep all the time.

When Will started talking, I almost groaned out loud. No matter how strong, powerful, and muscle-y Nico di Angelo was; he was still a jerk. He attacked me when I was at my weakest and that was simply not okay. You can't just do something like that to someone—especially not a girl. Playing with a girl's emotions (particularly when they're all torn up about something) is one of the worst things that you can do to her.

_That's _exactly why I blew up on him. I was so angry that he was treating me like crap after all the pain that I had just gone through. If it had been any other time that he was mocking me, I most likely would have been fine (for the most part). It was just not my day.

I told Will that I didn't need, nor want, Nico to "protect" me, (which was was mostly true, considering that the only other people that could help me were always busy with something else.) but I got the shock of my life when Mr. McGreat decided that, yeah, he was going to hover over me like a shadow. (Ha! I just made my own little joke.) It was pretty hard to understand, considering that about three hours from that time, he practically hated my very existence.

Now he was siding with my brother? Give me a break! I _knew _that there was probably something up his sleeves and that his choice was most likely to come back and bite _me_ in the butt, but not him.

That, unfortunately, was just my luck. As you can probably tell by now, I have rotten luck.

When he looked into my eyes, they widened—but it wasn't because of fear. So much swirled in the depths of his eyes that were as black as night. There was so much pain and suffering, so much loss and sadness. It made my heart crack despite my anger toward the Son of Hades.

No one should ever have that much pain held in their eyes. Even if I didn't particularly enjoy his _wonderful _company, no one deserved that. Who knows what his eyes had seen over the past sixteen years? What was it that had caused so much despair to appear in those eyes? It wasn't likely that he would ever tell me.

I was just a lowly daughter of Apollo with anger issues and an abusive boyfriend. I could never compare to the bravery of Percy, the smarts of Annabeth, or the wildness of Thalia. It would be impossible for me to come even close to their caliber.

So why, exactly, did he choose to say yes? What caused him to change his mind about me? _Who_ caused him to change his mind about me?

That, ladies and gentlemen, is when I realized that I had been staring into Nico di freaking Angelo's eyes for approximately two-and-a-half minutes while he had been talking to me. I wasn't even listening to what he was saying, but it looked like he was waiting for some sort of answer. So, being the smart and intellectual person that I am, I simply nodded my head.

What _really _freaked me out, however, wasn't his request; it was the sinister grin that inched its way across his face.

* * *

When Nico went back into his cabin and kicked everybody out, I glared at Will. "Can you tell me why, exactly, you just did that?"

"I already told you; you have a better chance of actually staying safe if he's around you," he said, running his hand through his hair. "What if we get into a fight and I can't protect both you and myself from him? Huh? What'll happen then? How am I supposed to handle that kind of situation? I couldn't bear it if—if—"

It was then that finally I realized just how much my situation was bothering my brother. He was obviously so torn up about it and I was too ignorant to notice anything. Knowing him, he probably was putting all of the blame on himself. That broke my heart. I felt like the absolute worst sister in the entire world at that moment.

I put my hand on his shoulder, but he just turned away from me, which made me feel even worse. "Look, Will. It's not your fault." He shrugged off my hand, and that hurt. A lot. I wanted to comfort him (it was the _least _that I could do) and he totally ignored my attempts to make him feel better.

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I dropped my hand and looked away. I figured that he would listen to me later, but it still cut me deep. Here was my brother, a strong demigod (not to mention my best friend) and he wasn't even giving me a second glance. I knew that he was probably angry with himself, but that was not at all a reason to give me the cold shoulder. Why would he be mad at me if I was only trying to make him feel better about something that was my fault?

No matter how much I try, I will never understand boys.

Drew coughed, which made me flinch. It had been a while since she had last spoken, so I had forgotten that she was there. Will and I looked over at her, both of us***** avoiding each other's eyes. Since I know my brother like the back of my hand, I knew that we would most likely bring it up later and that it would be totally awkward. He's not very good with the whole _I'm sorry_ concept. I hoped that our little heart-to-heart chat could wait until the morning, because I'm not very capable of discussing things when I am tired.

"So…" she said awkwardly. Her right hand reached up and grabbed a lock of the dark hair framing her face. I was all cool with it until she started twisting it. It was really distracting because of my ADHD. I wanted so badly to just rip her hand out of her hair just to make her stop or to do something less distracting.

"So…" Will said back, which made me mad. So it's not okay to talk to your sister that you're mad at for no valid reason, but it's suddenly alright to talk to some girl?

My bad; Drew wasn't just some _girl_. At least, to _Will _she wasn't just some girl. To Will, she's the absolute best thing since ambrosia. She's some sort of…goddess or something. (Sorry, bad pun.) To him, she was the only person that really understood him beside the people that were his half-brothers and sisters. She's beautiful, graceful, funny, and apparently, she was some sort of smarty. Don't really get that last one. And those were his words, not mine, by the way.

I tried to like her; I really did. It wasn't like I just didn't want to like her, or anything like that, but I always felt like whenever she was around, it was getting harder for me to actually get his attention. But even when she wasn't around, she still had an effect on him. It was like she had permanently put him under some sort of enchantment and the harder that we would try to get him out of it, the more that he seemed to get pulled under.

It was probably selfish of me to think like that. I mean, she was his first almost-girlfriend. All the other girls that he liked either weren't very committed to one person at a time or had too many tattoos and piercings. Gross, right? The point is; he had finally had found a girl that he liked and that I could tolerate…somewhat. I didn't want to make him unhappy by saying that I didn't like Drew because she means the world to him. What kind of person would that make me if I did that to him when I knew that he was happy?

My brother scratched the back of his neck, which, I will point out, is something that I've noticed that a _lot _of guys do when they're nervous about something. It's kind of strange, but it's sort of like when girls play with their hair. Except girls don't just play with their hair when they're nervous; they also play with it when they're flirting or when they're bored—not that I would know that much about the fine art of being flirtatious.

Sorry about that; my ADHD just kicked in and I went _way _off-topic. Back to the story.

He scratched his neck awkwardly and said, "If you want, I—I mean, we—can walk you back to your cabin. It's not too far from where ours is. But it's only if you want. It's only if you're cool with it. Don't feel obligated to let us take you, because I wouldn't want to make you feel bad or anything."

I rolled my eyes. Will seriously needed some sort of instructor or class on girls so he can finally learn how to talk to the female sex. The way that he rambled on was worse than me when I ramble. He was acting like some sort of love-struck teenager, which would make sense if you count out the fact that he was about 21 years old, which is about five years older than me.

I thought that it was pretty funny; normally, the guy is supposed to be the confident one and sweeps the girl off her feet with charming words and witty banter. My brother was not suave at all. He always stumbled over his words whenever he tried to talk to her and his sentences were normally jammed together because he would try to talk so fast. It was pretty funny from my point of view. It probably wasn't as funny for him as it was for me, though.

Oh, well.

Drew looked at him and rolled her eyes back at him. "_Duh,_" she said exasperatedly, "why wouldn't I want a handsome hunk like you to walk me home? Isn't that how it happens in the mortal movies? The guy takes the girl hoe and right before she steps inside, he pulls her into a brain-exploding kiss, right?" She looked at him innocently, but we both knew better than that. As for me, however, I thought that the situation was rather funny, so I was trying my hardest not to laugh in the middle of their…heart-felt moment.

Will's eyes widened and he shook his head, saying, "You're so drunk; how many beers did you have tonight?"

She scowled back at him. I knew exactly how she felt.

_Boys. They're so exasperating. And dense…and moronic…and stupid…and lame…and oblivious…and overprotective…and lame…and nerdy…and lame…and not to mention lame._

"No, I'm not drunk," she corrected him, putting her hands on her hips, "and just for the record; there was no _beer _at this party. It was high-class: meaning that there was only tequila and vodka." Yep, she was either completely smashed or was just trying to get my brother's attention— which probably wouldn't have been that hard for her to do at that moment.

The look on his face was priceless. I could tell that he wanted to kiss the crap out of her at that moment, but there were two obvious things that were stopping him.

One of them was me.

It wasn't as if I was not noticeable or anything. I was being a third wheel and I absolutely hated being there at that moment. It was _so _uncomfortable. I wanted to get out of there as soon as possible, but Will would argue that he shouldn't let me walk back to our cabin alone in the dark, late night. I thought he was being sweet, but I also didn't want to make things even more awkward than they already were.

The other thing was the fact that we were still in front of Nico's cabin.

I don't know what Will and Drew thought, but I know that I didn't think that Nico would take too kindly to people making out on his very small front yard. I know that I sure as Hades wouldn't.

The thought made me cringe. Sure, I love my brother; but when I think of anyone _locking lips, swapping spit, having a tongue war, massaging each other's tonsils _with my _brother_…I tend to feel a bit nauseous. The whole idea of my brother dating someone scares me, as I acknowledged beforehand. I don't want to be left alone with people that I know might not exactly care about how I feel and what's going on inside my head. Will cares. And he does a very good job at it.

I took one good look at the two of them. I really wanted to go so they could have some alone time, but I knew that Will would fight me on the subject. Now this may come as a surprise to you, but I really don't enjoy fighting with my brother. He was the first friend that I made when I came to camp and I will never forget how happy that made me. What doesn't make me happy, however, is when my brother is mad, angry, or even mildly upset with me because that makes me feel as if I've disappointed him, or something. He was and still is such a huge influence on me and I can barely even stand the thought of him being disappointed in me.

So now you obviously know why I couldn't possibly want to make him angry at me.

Even after my little mental rant, they were still staring at each other.

I cleared my throat, which caused them to both look at me (quite reluctantly, I must say) with dazed looks. "If you want, Will, I could just walk back to the cabin by myself and you can take Drew—"

His eyes widened. "Like Hades I will. It's past two o'clock in the morning, and who knows what could be out there?" Shaking his head, he ran his hand through his hair. "No, Lynn. I'm _not _going to let you go all the way to our cabin by yourself it's not safe; no matter how much you want it to be, it's simply not safe. My final answer is no."

"Her cabin isn't even that far away from us! I can handle ten yards, Will. I'm not a little kid anymore," I scoffed. But once I saw the look on his face—the classical, it's-all-my-fault look—I regretted saying that. I wanted to pluck all of my words right out of the air and stuff them back down my throat, no matter how much pain it caused me. Seeing my brother in that state was almost too much to bear. He looked so lost; I knew that it wouldn't be as simple as saying, "Hey, bro. I'm sorry that I hurt your feelings and I will try my hardest not to do that. Can you forgive me?"

"So you're saying that you've been an adult for what—ten hours? Man, Lynn. You don't understand. Seeing you, my brave, courageous, strong sister, curled up in a ball, covered with bruises and blood…that was one of the most horrible things that you could ever imagine. I could barely handle it; Dani and Dylan were going after me for worrying so much." His tone was painful; it was like it made him hurt to say that out loud.

I sighed. "Well, you shouldn't; you'll get worry lines. Very unattractive."

He plowed right on, totally ignoring my attempts to make a joke. "Sometimes I need to worry, okay? Not only am I a senior counselor, I have a huge priority as not only your big brother, but as Dylan, Dani, Max, Lucas, Jane's and everybody else's big brother. I worry. It's perfectly natural." His shoulders slumped, as if all the fight had miraculously left his body all at once.

I wanted so bad to comfort him, but Drew beat me to it. She quickly swept him into her arms, not caring when he tensed and stood there stiffly. "It's going to be okay, Will," she said. Okay, will someone _please _tell me when my brother's almost-girlfriend became his comforter?!

That's when I came up with an idea. I didn't really llike it, but if it meant that my brother was going to be happy, I would do it, no matter the cost. It was most likely going to be difficult, considering the fact that it was about two forty-five in the morning and no regular or normal human being would get up at that time.

I took a deep breath. "Will, I have an idea." Both of them looked at me, probably contemplating whether or not I was insane. They most likely had very good reason to—not that the thougt was making me feel any less nauseous. "What if...what if I could get Nico to walk me back to the cabin? That way you can know that I'm in good hands, and you can also walk Drew back to the Aphrodite cabin." My hands wrung themselves together. I had just taken a huge risk, asking him that, but at the same time, I felt better know that I had tried.

My brother sighed before answering. "I think it's a great idea—if you can get Nico to get up. He sleeps like a zombie. Pun not intented." My brother never ceases to amaze me—and just when I thought he was going to say no and force me to be the third wheel..._again._

I smiled at him and quickly walked to Nico's door. The sooner that he woke up and agreed to come with me, the sooner that we could both be in bed. i made sure to knock on it as loudly as I could; I really wanted to go to bed.

He opened the door.

* * *

***Both of Us - I absolutely _love _this song; it makes me cry sometimes.**

**Cliffhanger!**

**Hey, guys, what's up? Me? Nothing much, thanks for asking, I appriciate it.**

**There are somethings that I would like to clarify: Lynn's eyes are green, not blue. I'm sorry if that confused some people. And yes, you're not on drugs, Lynn is fifteen. Nico is sixteen, Drew is nineteen, and Will is twenty-one. **

**So...what's Nico gonna say? Are Will and Drew finally going to get some alone time? Will Lynn finally get to go to bed?**

**Find out in Chapter 7: Windows to the Soul**

**See y'all later!**

**- Daughter-of-Apollo213/Onalenna**


	7. Chapter 7: Moonlight

**Kiss of Death Chapter 7: Moonlight (I decided to change the chapter title; this one makes more sense.)**

**OMG! I'm so close to TEN CHAPTERS! I'm so excited. I hope you guys are; I'm betting that some serious, crazy, and wild stuff is gonna go down…well, **_**obviously **_**I know when some serious stuff is gonna go down; I'm writing the story! HAHAHAHA, I made a joke. Sorry…I'm kinda super hyper right now, if you haven't already noticed.**

**Anyway…I'm really happy that I actually have people reading my stuff, you know? Like, when I first started this story, I never even imagined that I would be able to get so many people to read something that I wrote (er…**_**typed**_**). I'm sort of impressed with myself; I thought that I would have given up by now, but I would never do that to you guys. It annoys me when I start reading a story, and I really like it, and then I find out that the author decided to discontinue it. How much of a quitter attitude is that? I mean, really; there could be so many people reading your story, and now you just took away that good story. But there are exceptions, of course.**

**Review of Chapter 6**

_**I smiled at him and quickly walked to Nico's door. The sooner that he woke up and agreed to come with me, the sooner that we could both be in bed. I made sure to knock on it as loudly as I could; I really wanted to go to bed.**_

_**He opened the door.**_

**ATTENTION! THERE IS A VERY IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE AT THE BOTTOM THAT ANYONE WHO PLANS TO REVIEW ****MUST**** READ! THANK YOU.**

**Are you ready for this? 'Cause here we go! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, Chapter Seven of the riveting young adult novel, Kiss of Death!**

**Was that too dramatic? That's what I thought. (And yes, I am stalling.)**

**By the way, I don't own the Percy Jackson franchise. If I did, not only would Percy and Annabeth, Jason and Piper, and Hazel and Frank stay together, Leo and Reyna would get together and Nico would finally get a girlfriend. ;) Happy reading! (I'm still stalling, by the way.)**

* * *

Nico

I know that I'm not the ideal poster boy for the Normalcy Campaign, but I'm still pretty sure that even waking up at two o'clock in the morning isn't even close to being normal.

So when I heard an extremely loud knock on my door, I was about ready to run whoever it was through with my blade. It seemed that the person at my door was pretty stubborn about me waking up; they were hammering away on the door's wood like their lives were in danger. (It wasn't highly unlikely; I mean, when you're a demigod, your life is pretty much always in danger.)

I staggered across the length of my cabin, swearing softly when I tripped and nearly fell. After a few minutes, I finally had made it to my door. (I can pretty much see why people insist that I get some more lights in there.) If the person on the other side wasn't either in danger or dying, they sure as Hades were about to be; I'm known to be very irritable when I'm tired.

After fumbling for the doorknob for a few seconds, my hand finally grasped it. I opened the door, and I must say, I don't think that I have ever been so unhappy to see one person in my short, miserable life—not even when I went back to the Underworld and saw the Fury Alecto again last winter.

What in my father's name was _she _doing at _my_ cabin that early in the morning? Didn't she know that it's impolite to wake people up before 12 o'clock in the afternoon? What could she possibly have wanted at 2 A.M.? Why am I asking so many questions?

I groaned once I saw her blond hair. "Look," I said tiredly. "I know that I'm very attractive, and I know that I said that I would be your little "bodyguard" or whatever, but no way in Hades does that mean that you have to wake me up at 2 o'clock in the freaking morning! If you want to see the handsomeness that is my face so badly, you're gonna have to wait until breakfast. Until then, it seems that you're going to have to settle for your fantasies."

Miss Blondie rolled her eyes at me. "Good morning, unpleasant little ray of darkness. I hope you excuse my impoliteness, but I'm going to skip all the pleasantries; you and I both know that I don't want to be here." I nodded in agreement; I didn't exactly want her to be at my place, either. "Nonetheless, Drew and Will are still with me, and I really don't fancy the idea of being the third wheel while he walks her back to the Aphrodite cabin."

"Good for you. What does this have to do with me, again?" I waited for her to elaborate.

"This has to do with you because I want you—"

I cut her off, saying cockily, "Yeah, yeah; we both already know how much you want me. Can I go back to bed now? I was having a dream about riding a Twinkie into the sunset." I tend to be a bit crude when I'm tired.

"Who ever said anything about _me _wanting _you_? Can you please answer that?" Lynn scoffed. "I actually _really_ want to hear what you have to say this time," she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I can see it in your eyes, Blondie; you want me _so_ bad that it hurts. It hurts you knowing that I'm so close to you, but you can't have me," I responded, bending down to whisper into her ear. I chuckled as she shivered, relishing the fact that I made her uncomfortable; it's kind of my thing.

She snorted—which is _very_ unattractive, I might add—and pushed me back a bit; causing my arm to slip from its place on the door and making me lose my balance. "It's really not polite to push people when they're half asleep, Blondie."

"Whatever; you know I still need to finish my request."

I snorted—it is in no way, shape, or form, unattractive when I snort, just so you know. Everything that I do (even if it's as simple as brushing my teeth) is attractive. "Request? This is beginning to sound more and more like a demand, Blondie."

Her green eyes rolled back at me again. "Fine—it's a demand." I nodded in approval, which just made her roll her eyes at me again. She took another breath, mentally and physically preparing herself for whatever she was going to talk about. "I want you to walk me back to my cabin while Will is walking Drew back to her cabin. It's probably just going to be just this one time, since I really don't plan on staying out too late anymore." She shivered unconsciously. "So…will you do it?"

My, my, my—she was just as delusional as I thought she was. Did she _honestly_ think that I would? Just because my dad is the Lord of the Underworld among other things, that does not mean that I am nocturnal or anything. And I mean, it wasn't as if we were friends or anything; I had only agreed to the stupid task because I wanted to prove to her that even though most of my dad's "worshippers" were dead, I was (and still am) human. I was still capable of caring about the well-being of another person. But unfortunately for her, walking her home past midnight wasn't included in the job description.

"Um…let me think about it…How about no?" I said, ignoring the resigned sigh that came from her lips. "What I do want right now, though, is to get some sleep. So, if you could please exit the way that you came…"

She rolled her eyes at me again. "If you do this, I might actually _like_ you," she said. "If you do it, I might leave you alone a bit more…" Her voice trailed off, her eyes pleading with me to do this thing for her.

"Why do you want me to walk you back to your cabin so bad? Why can't you just be the third wheel and deal with it?"

"Oh, gee; I don't know? It would make me _such_ an amazing sister if I decided to intrude on their moment, don't you think?" she asked, not even bothering to hide the sarcasm in her voice. "No; I don't want to do that to my brother. He deserves to be happy, and I don't want to take something as big as love away from him. He really likes her, and even though they might not know it, they want to be alone. And I mean alone as in without me for once." A sigh escaped her mouth. "So now do you see why I asked you to talk me back to the cabin? It's all for Will; I swear on the River Styx that I'm not doing this just to annoy you or anything—so…please?"

I stood there for a moment as the thunder rolled by, weighing my options. She must have been pretty serious if she swore on the River Styx. If I didn't go, Lynn might hate me forever, which wasn't all that bad. But if you considered that I would have to spend most of my days over the summer hovering over her like a hawk, having her hate me probably wouldn't be the best option. And plus, I actually liked Will; it wasn't his fault that his dad decided to knock up a woman that would later give birth to his annoying little sister.

"Whatever," I said, my voice filled with boredom. I was actually planning on going with her, but I wanted to see what her reaction would be if I turned her down. I'm weird like that. But then again, all demigods are pretty weird.

As my arm went to close the door, she stuck hers out in front of mine, blocking my access to the doorknob. I raised my eyebrow, surprised at her boldness. It takes a lot of balls to stand up to me; we mustn't forget my intimidation rate.

"I not actually planning on leaving, just so you know," she said. "And I'm not taking no for an answer. My brother deserves something like this; it's about time that I started doing things for him. I want to show him that I care."

She stared (more like glared) into my eyes, trying to make sure that the message was getting across. I knew that I couldn't keep this charade up any longer, seeing as I'm a terrible actor, so I dropped my hand. "Fine," I said, rubbing a hand down my face. "But you—"

Squealing like a newborn piglet*****, she jumped up and hugged me. I don't know if you haven't noticed, but I'm not the most, touchy-feely kind of person. If you take that in mind, you'll probably realize that I wasn't exactly comfortable when she hugged me. I stiffened under her death-grip.

_Girls—w_hy can't they just be normal?

I coughed loudly.

"Sorry," she said awkwardly, finally untangling herself from me. "I got excited."

"I'll say," I mumbled, relieved.

Lynn rolled her eyes at me. "I'll choose to ignore that, seeing as you're doing this little thing for me."

"For Will," I interjected. I didn't want her thinking that I would just do random stuff for her all the time. In fact, we wouldn't be seeing much of each other—not if I have helped it. No need to have people thinking that we were friends, or something.

She nodded firmly. "Yep; it's _all _for Will."

* * *

After I quickly grabbed my BAMF********** leather jacket, we headed for the place that she said Will and Drew were standing. "I'm really hoping that this isn't some kind of prank; that wouldn't be cool."

"Are you for real? You don't have to worry about a prank, Death Boy; that's not my kind of thing. I don't take partake in or enjoy activities that are immature."

"The word _immature _is for people that are about as exciting as a log. And you're calling me Death Boy—_really?_" I looked at her with a dead look on my face._ "That's _the nickname that you're giving me? You do realize that I don't control death, right?"

She shrugged her tiny shoulders. "Hey; I just figured that if you're going to call me blondie, then I'm going to call you something just as demeaning and stereotypical." (Who says stuff like stereotypical and demeaning? I mean, really?) Her mouth curved into an evil smirk. "Besides—I think that it sort of suits you. It makes you seem less _I-will-destroy-the-entire-human-race _and more like _I-will-kill-you. _It's less scary."

"So you think I'm scary?" I asked amusedly. And, of course, I couldn't let the opportunity pass me by; I had to brag about my intimidation rate. "Don't mean to brag, but if you haven't heard, my intimida—"

Her hand rose, stopping me in the middle of my sentence. (Actually, to be precise, she stopped me when I was about ¾ of the way through my sentence, but we won't stand on technicalities.) "I know all about your 97 intimidation rate; everyone knows about it. Honestly, Nico—this _is _a summer camp, you know. Things tend to get around pretty quickly."

That made me feel pretty good about myself; maybe less people would talk to me when I was angry when they found out my intimidation rate. It's a pretty big thing, but I digress.

"Hold up; don't get too full of yourself, di Angelo. No need to get a big head—or a head that's even bigger, I should say. That doesn't mean that you're über-scary; it just means that you're strong and all that jazz."

"And just how do you know this?" I'll admit; I was pretty interested by what she said. Did she really not think I was that scary? Hm.

She waved her small hand dismissively. "I'm pretty good at reading people. And besides, it doesn't and shouldn't really matter. I mean, why is it be such a big deal that I'm not terrified of the Almighty Nico di Angel—"

"Why do you do that?" I asked, interrupting her.

"Why do I do what?"

I rolled my eyes. "Why do you always associate me with stupid titles, like "Almighty" and "The Great and Powerful"?"

She rolled her eyes right back at me. "It's just what I do. Sometimes, I call Will Captain Sun Beam, just to irritate him. It's actually quite amusing."

"And Zeus knows that you're good at making people irritated." I smirked. "You do a pretty good job around me, just so you know." Lynn hit me across my chest, which made me chuckle; did she honestly think that one measly hit from _her, _of all people, would hurt me? "Anyway, you were saying?"

"It's not like I hate you or anything. That's not the reason why I'm not extremely terrified of you. I know that you're strong and that you're a really powerful demigod. I also know that you can kill me pretty easily."

I smirked.

"But," she paused, "I know that you wouldn't hurt me."

"But…isn't that kind of the same thing? Isn't being afraid of me and knowing that I can kill you the same?" It just didn't make any sense to me. "How do you know that I wouldn't hurt you? Why are you so sure that I won't?"

"I don't know," she said, after thinking about her answer for awhile. "Despite what everybody says about you, and despite the fact that your father is Hades, you don't seem like you would willingly hurt or kill someone without a good reason to. But that could just be me." Her small shoulders lifted into a shrug. "Does that make any sense to you?"

"No, not really." How could she actually think that that would make any sense? "I just don't get it; what makes you think that I'm so great?"

Her eyebrows creased together as she frowned. "Despite how you treated me earlier this morning and yesterday in the infirmary, I just know that you aren't exactly what people make you out to be; I think that you're better than that. It's just the way that you are around people, I guess. Everybody knows that you aren't the biggest people person in the world, but if they would see you when you're with your friends—it's like you're a totally different person. I never noticed this until now, but it's like every time you're with someone that you care about, you look like you feel like you belong. I noticed that the other day when you were chatting it up with Percy. I guess that you could say that I'm a good people reader." She paused for a second. "But then again, who knows how people really are?"

Lynn stopped talking after that, which was kind of disappointing for me; I mean, she says all of these somewhat nice things about me and then stops—leaving me hanging on the edge of a cliff. I just couldn't wrap my head around some of the stuff that she was saying. It really wasn't every day that someone says stuff like that about me. And I wasn't completely sure if I liked that or not.

* * *

"Hey, Will. Hey, Drew," Lynn said drowsily. "I finally convinced Nico to take me back to our cabin so you two don't have to."

Well—_that _was pretty straightforward. "I couldn't have said it better myself," Drew mumbled. I don't think that Will heard though; he is _really _unobservant when it comes to the female of the species. That really stinks for him, because not only is Drew a female, she is also a _demigod _female. That's like a double-whammy right to the face. Demigod females are extremely vicious because they know more ways to kill a person than most males—mortal males, that is.

Awkward moment aside…let's continue, shall we?

Will blinked; apparently he wasn't exactly expecting that to happen. "Well—um…if—" Then he just stopped talking completely, staring at me as if I had just dropped from outer space—which is ridiculous, considering that I would be dead. Oh! Maybe _that's _what that expression means! I never got it until now. I feel stupid. (If you repeat that to _anyone_, I swear I will make your after life _miserable_.)

Drew blurted out, "Thank you, Nico! Thanks for agreeing to walk Lynn to Cabin 7 while Will," she tugged on his arm, trying to get his attention, "walks me back to Cabin 10. That's the plan, _right Will?_" She looked at him again, a little bit of desperation creeping into her voice.

I grimaced; no wonder Lynn wanted to give the two some alone time. Anyone with one eye and half of a brain could see that Drew liked the blonde idiot.*******

She was still trying to get his attention. "Hello? Is anybody home in William Land?" Drew grumbled. She snapped her fingers in front of his face. Nothing. "Well," she huffed at Lynn, "if your moron of a brother decides that he actually wants to talk to me, I'll be at my cabin, cursing his name—_cháo." _Then she turned completely on her heel and walked away.

I resisted the urge to face-palm at Will's stupidity. "What—what exactly just happened?" I asked, turning to Lynn, who was already walking towards her frozen brother. "Did that _really _just happen or was my brain playing tricks on me?" I looked at her again, filled to the brim with questions. "Did your brother _really _just let the girl that he likes walk away from him? And what, exactly, does _cháo_ mean?"

"I guess so," she sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why she even likes him; he's _such _an idiot! Maybe it's not too late for him to catch up to her. But," her voice drawled as she circled her frozen brother, "the problem is: he seems to be frozen in place from shock, maybe. There is only way that we can break him out of it."

"And what's that?" I raised my eyebrow at her. She narrowed her eyes at me, and then looked back at Will.

"Easy," she said. "We slap him out of it—literally."

My eyes widened a bit; it wasn't as if I didn't know that female demigods were (and still are) crazy, I just didn't think that she would go so far as to slap him. Well…now that I think about it, she _did_, after all, slap me.

"Remind me why you're doing this again?"

"Because," she said, turning back to look at me, "no matter how much I want to dislike Drew, she makes him happy; I want him to be happy, even if it means that I have to fix his mistakes every time he screws up. I really care about my brother and his happiness. I don't think he even knows much I love him."

Wow. I don't that I've ever heard about someone caring about their sibling like that. There's no one that I've ever met that could say something like that so wholeheartedly.

That is, no one except…

Me.

I shook the thought out of my head; there's no point in pointing out things that we have in common.

"So…"

"So…what?" she asked impatiently.

"Which one of us is going to slap him?" It's not like I wanted to do it; Will was one of my friends. As much as I enjoy punching my buddies every half-hour or so, I didn't really like the idea of slapping him.

Her green eyes rolled. "I will, of course. I'm used to the idea of slapping people."

I rolled my eyes right back at her. "Okay, then, Lady Slap-a-lot; slap away."

Even to this day, I stand firm by the belief that her slap was what nearly got us caught, not my "extremely loud laughter" or Will's scream of pain. But that's later on in the story.

My face winced in sympathy. I had felt her womanly fury, and it really wasn't pleasant experience. "That," I said, "has _got _to hurt."

It took a few seconds, but we finally got a reaction from Mr. Idiot. And that scream of pain that I just mentioned? It erupted out of his mouth like bad sushi. It was like listening to a horse that was getting flayed by one of those Asian chefs that make your food right in front of you. It was just awful.

He turned to Lynn, his hands clutching his red face. "What in the name of Hades was that for?"

"I take offence to that," I said, raising my hand slightly. But in reality, I didn't really care at all; it wasn't as if even I didn't use my dad's name as a swear word. Every demigod does.

"Even if I _am _glad that you decided to not be a dick and take my sister to her—I mean our—cabin, I, frankly, don't give a damn about whatever shit you take offence to." Will took a deep breath, trying to calm his frayed nerves down. When he finally did, he said, "Please excuse my improper language."

I looked at him incredulously. (Look at me; I speak like a smart person!) "Seriously—what is with you two and speaking like you don't live in the twenty-first century?"

He cocked his head, and so did Lynn, which was kind of creepy. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I think we speak like pretty ordinary people, thank you."

"Both of you—you use all these weird words that no normal person would use, and it kind of weirds me out." I shivered dramatically. "It's like you guys talk like you're from a whole other century."

"I still don't know what you're talking about, but okay." Lynn looked at her brother. "The real problem now is trying to figure out how you're going to get Drew to forgive you for this one. That was a _pretty _stupid move on your part, Captain Sun Beam," she said smugly, patting his shoulder.

He groaned. "What happened? How bad was it? Don't sugarcoat it, please."

"Well," I said. "Blondie over here led us to where you and Drew were chatting like little old ladies. You were surprised to see me here, I guess, because you were basically frozen from shock. You just stood there, staring at me like I had just dropped from outer space. It was really creepy."

"Then what happened?"

Lynn started talking before I could, which is very rude. "She tried to get your attention, but you wouldn't respond. She got pissed and left for her cabin all by herself, claiming that she was going to be "cursing your name". I believe that those were the exact words that she used, big brother."

He groaned again. "I'm going to go and try to apologize for being so dumb."

"I think that that would probably be best, Captain Blonde," I said sarcastically. When they both looked at me, I said, "What are you looking at me like that for? You told me not to sugarcoat it. I did just as you asked, like the amazing person that I am."

Lynn rolled her eyes at me. "He said not to sugarcoat it. He _didn't _say to pour salt all over it. Gods, boys are so ignorant and immature."

"Hey!"

"I'm just stating the truth. The truth hurts but lies hurt even more, right Will?" She turned to look at her brother, but he wasn't there. "I think he might have left just now."

"You don't say?"

"Oh, for the love of Artemis, shut up, Nico!" she exclaimed exasperatedly.

"And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?" I raised my eyebrow at her.

She pointed up at the full moon. "Well, if you haven't noticed by now, there is a full moon in the sky. I figured that Artemis would, I don't know, like me better if I actually paid attention to her. I mean, she hates me. She hates most of my dad's kids. I think it just has to do with us being children of Apollo, which is totally unfair; she can't blame or dislike us just because she isn't on the best terms with my dad. That's just juvenile and immature."

"Careful," I said jokingly, "you never know when the gods could be listening."

She smiled slightly, showing off her white teeth. "I know. But despite the whole argument that they have every millennium, I've always enjoyed the moon and the moonlight. There's just something about it that makes things so…so…different, I guess. And that's not a bad thing."

I only nodded, not really feeling the need to say anything else. The conversation wasn't exactly one that I had had with someone else, but it was interesting to see what other people thought of some things. Neither of us said any more about anything.

So we walked on to her cabin in a comfortable silence, bathed in the moonlight.

* * *

**Done! I am **_**sooooo **_**sorry that I haven't been updating! Words cannot even begin to express how terrible I feel about not updating! I hope you guys haven't given up on me just yet.**

***: I was watching Total Blackout (funniest show ever!) and there was a little piglet in one of the boxes. It was so cute and it made me think of this!**

****: This means bada** motherf*cker, just if you were wondering.**

*****: This is not meant as some sort of blonde joke! I was just trying to show that Nico was talking about Will being stupid. Sorry if anybody got offended by this.**

**How did you guys like this chapter? I know, I know; it was amazing, as usual. Just kidding! **** I love you guys so much for sticking with me this far! It means so much to me that you care enough to continue reading this story.**

**Anyway—I'm planning on starting a contest. I want you to come up with a cute couple name for Nico and Lynn. I already came up with one—Lyco—but I don't really like it. In order for your entry to be valid, it has to either be in a review, or it has to be PM'd to me. The prize is that I will use you as a character in either this story or a different one. And if you win, you ****need**** to be willing to PM me once in a while to give me some tips about your personality. It will end on March 20****th****, so you should have plenty of time to get an entry in. And if you can, please tell others about this; I want as many choices as possible. That way, I can have more of a variety.**

**Here is the format that your entry needs to be in: (Don't I sound all formal?)**

**Your Name: First, Last**

**Lynn & Nico's Couple Name: **

**A Little Bit of a Description of Yourself:**

**Thanks for reading, write a review, and may the contest begin!**

**-Daughter-of-Apollo213**


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